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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Wages & Employment by Occupation in Oregon's Metro Areas

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released its 2011 Occupational Employment and Wages estimates for metropolitan areas. The all-occupation median hourly wage in Oregon's metropolitan areas showed little difference from the U.S median. Portland ($18.11) and Corvallis ($17.59) had slightly higher hourly wages than the U.S. ($16.57). At $16.42 per hour, Salem nearly matched the U.S.. Wages in Bend, Eugene, and Medford were slightly lower, falling between $15.00 and $16.00 per hour.

In some occupational groups, Oregon's wages differ from the nation. The state's business and financial operations occupations posted relatively low wages in Oregon. Portland ($29.12) came close to matching the U.S. ($29.67), but most other metro areas in the state paid closer to $25.00 per hour. Oregon outperforms the U.S. in some other occupational groups; health care practitioners and technical occupations are one such example. The median hourly wage for this occupational group was $28.64 nationwide. That's far below the median wages for all metropolitan areas, which ranged from a high of $35.69 in Portland to a low of $33.43 in Salem.

For other occupational groups, Oregon metros show mixed results. Computer and mathematical jobs in Corvallis, for instance, had a median wage of $38.28, which exceeds the U.S. median wage ($36.10) by more than two dollars per hour. At the same time, jobs in these occupations earned nearly ten dollars less per hour in Medford ($27.07) and Bend ($27.84) compared with the U.S.

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